TREY WARE: Pop, Trump, Kawhi, Obama, Hillary All In One Article

Before the Spurs’ agonizing collapse to the Golden State Warriors Sunday, Coach Pop sounded off on President Donald Trump (again),

“…to this day I feel like there’s a cloud, a pall, over the whole country…”

“It’s got to do with the way one individual conducts himself. It’s embarrassing. It’s dangerous to our institutions and what we all stand for and what we expect the country to be. But for this individual, he’s at a game show and everything that happens begins and ends with him, not our people or our country.”

“When he talks about those things, that’s just a ruse. That’s disingenuous, cynical and fake.”

Sounds like someone needs to inform Pop that Obama is not President anymore. Everything he said fits the Obama years to a T.

Several sports writers have chronicled the number of times Pop has sounded off on Trump and it’s somewhere between 6 and 12, depending on who you ask. That number led a popular commentator to say Pop is bordering on Trump-derangement syndrome.

I don’t know about that, but I do know there will be those who will blame Pop’s negative comments about Trump should the Spurs lose this series. They will say Pop was distracted by politics, and he wasn’t paying enough attention to basketball. Pop didn’t help his case Sunday when he admitted to a reporter that he indeed was distracted by the President. No worries, Pop’s a big boy. He can walk and chew gum at the same time.

A day later, Pop decided to comment on Zaza and the injury to Kawhi.

“A two-step lead with your foot close out is not appropriate. It’s dangerous, it’s unsportsmanlike. It’s just not what anybody does to anybody else,” Popovich said.

“And this particular individual has a history with that kind of action,”

“A totally unnatural close out that the league has outlawed years ago.”

“This is crap, because he has this history, oh, it can’t just be inadvertent or he didn’t have intent. Who gives a damn about what his intent was,” Popovich said. “You ever hear of manslaughter? You still go to jail I think when you’re texting and you end up killing somebody, but you might not have intended to do that.”

Btw, wasn’t that the excuse former FBI Director James Comey gave for not indicting Hillary Clinton for her email server problems? The intent wasn’t there. She didn’t mean to do harm, said Comey. When it comes to the law, and the rules of the NBA, intent is irrelevant. Was the law, or rule broken? That’s the only question.

Clearly, Zaza broke the rule…

“All I care about is what I saw, all I care about is what happened and the history there exacerbates the whole situation and makes me very, very angry,”

Pop is right on the money. Players and teams receive scouting reports on injuries. They know who is hurting and where. Kawhi’s ankle injury was known to the entire world. Professional athletes are in total control of every centimeter of their bodies at all times. Zaza placed his foot where he did so he would make contact with Kawhi’s foot. The NBA has the rule for this very reason. Zaza got away with a move which removed the MVP.

Or did he? Get away with it that is.

We have a saying in auto racing after one driver intentionally crashes another – “Paybacks are hell.” It’s Sunday morning (after a Saturday night crash), but Saturday is coming.